Dylann 'Storm' Roof has been sentenced to death for his terrorist crimes. The sentence was handed down on Tuesday, January 10th. The jury had deliberated for three hours (about two hours 3/4 hours too long) before deciding Roof's ultimate fate. The jury's decision also makes Roof the first person in the U.S. to receive the death penalty under federal hate crimes laws. The jury itself was reportedly made up of nine Whites and three Blacks... perhaps the most Blacks you will see on any jury in this country ever. Tuesday's death sentence comes at the end of a too-long sentencing phase during which the terrorist/mass murderer represented himself, expressed no remorse, gave no reason for his crimes, and reaffirmed his devotion to White supremacy. No one spoke on Roof's behalf, including his family who has all but abandoned him. It has been confirmed that his older sister Amber Roof is a piece-of-shit, though. The entire trial took place at Charleston South Carolina Federal courthouse - about a mile from Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church where the murders had taken place.
Now that Roof is off to Death Row, that's pretty much that. And it's too damned bad, as Roof was intent on martyring himself this entire time. Like most mass murderers, he could have committed suicide right gunning down nine innocent Black people, or gotten into a shootout with cops. Perhaps he didn't have the guts to do himself, or let the police do it for him... but this is ultimately the route he chose. Like any wretched White man, he's getting want he wants in the end. And the authorities, the courts, the system, politicians, religious partisans, the media, members of the general public, etc. get to throw this "extreme case" under the bus. This allows everyone involved to pretend that Dylann Roof is simply a "lone wolf" who's not part of a MUCH BIGGER PROBLEM. Because even as we rid ourselves of a miserable little shitstain like Roof, an avowed White supremacist has executed a successful coup of the White House.
Had Roof been a Muslim or Person of Color and went on a mass shooting, this case would have played out drastically different! It's a fairly safe bet that the FBI has not developed a database profiling emasculated, skinny White men with children's haircuts in the wake of the Charleston massacre. No such COINTELPRO scheme has been conducted against White power terrorist groups. Law enforcement agencies aren't shutting down sites like Stormfront or /pol/. And they aren't raiding Nazi hideouts, executing their leaders on site. That's the awesome thing about White privilege: even when someone like Roof commits atrocities, no one else has to pay for it.
Other than the people murdered.
